Librettist: Gerrit Komrij
Date: 2001
Language: Portuguese and Dutch
Duration: 70 minutes
Smalll-scale
Erasmus of Rotterdam: bass
Damião de Góis: 2 baritones
Simão Rodrigues: tenor
Cardinal Dom Henrique: countertenor
The libretto situates us in an era that oscillates between alchemy and science, between legendary animals and the Portuguese discoveries. The old world still exists, but a new world is on its way. Weapons, commerce, the Church, the spirit, the press, cartography, sea routes: everything is moving in Europe. A meeting of a very special order thus took place between Erasmus of Rotterdam, a European figure of great stature in the political chess game between the Emperor and the Pope, and Damião de Góis, a young cosmopolitan from Lisbon who would help lay the foundations of humanism and modern erudition in Portugal. It was he who fostered the cult of Renaissance painting and polyphony there. It was a time when the forces of the Renaissance and the forces supported by the Inquisition fought mercilessly.
Act I
We are at the court of Dom Manuel, where the young Damião exults upon learning that he has been chosen to represent the Portuguese crown in the trading post of Flanders.
Act II
A long dialogue between Erasmus and the still young Damião. The old philosopher gives him masterful advice, expresses his conservative taste regarding the new music, corrects the young Portuguese’s faulty Latin, and warns him of the dangers of the Counter-Reformation.
Act III
An elderly and widowed Damião reunites with his old friend and confidant Cardinal Dom Henrique, who urges him to be extremely careful with the Inquisition. Damião laments the death of his wife, taking refuge in music. And it is precisely because of the music he cultivates in his home that an indictment arises: the “strange” melodies heard in his residence will lead to the trial conducted by the Jesuit priest Simão Rodrigues, an acquaintance from his youth, always envious of the success Damião de Góis had in his career. The opera ends in turmoil, with the imprisonment of the Portuguese humanist.
Fl | Ob | Cl | Bcl | Bsn | Hn | Tpt | Tbn | Tb | Perc | Pf (synth) | 4 Vln | 2 Vla | 2 Vc | Cb
Melodias Estranhas is one of the few Portuguese operas to be internationally co-produced, premiering in the Netherlands, as a result of a joint commission from Casa da Música and the Onafhankelijk Toneel company, then directed by Mirjam Koen and Gerrit Timmers, who were responsible for its staging. The synergy happened in 2001, within the context of the European Capital of Culture initiative, which that year distinguished Rotterdam and Porto with the title. It also marks Chagas Rosa’s return to the city where, years earlier, he had studied composition.
In an interview with musicologist Teresa Cascudo, the composer defined Melodias Estranhas as “the most difficult, most complex, and most laborious work” he had written up to that date. Partly due to the challenge of setting to music a “difficult libretto,” which is “more a drama of ideas than a drama of action.” Still regarding the libretto, the composer identifies: “the main theme is intolerance and punishment.” Indeed, the title refers to one of the many accusations that the Inquisition directed at Damião de Góis. Among suspicions of heresy and Lutheranism, the indictments also include references to the compositions of the Portuguese humanist and the polyphonic music he enjoyed performing with friends in Lisbon. Damião de Góis would indeed be arrested and condemned at the end of his life.
But the driving idea behind the opera “came from the desire to mark the encounter between two fundamental figures of Humanism: the Dutchman Erasmus of Rotterdam and the Portuguese Damião de Góis,” says António Chagas Rosa. One of the many episodes in the fascinating life of this intellectual, diplomat, and historian born in Alenquer, who would travel across Europe and mix with the elite of the 16th century.
In Portugal, the opera was first presented at the Teatro Tivoli, Porto, on December 20th, after its world premiere at the Onafhankelijk Toneel in Rotterdam on the 12th of the same month.
Date: 2001
Venue: Rotterdamse Schouwburg, Netherlands
Commission: Casa da Música and Onafhankelijk Toneel
Stage director: Mirjam Koen, Gerrit Timmers
Music director: Stefan Asbury
Cast: Henk Smit, Hugo Oliveira, Benoît Boutet, David Cordier and Remix Ensemble Casa da Música
